Question about vaccines. Please do not turn this into a debate.

Hi all. So I work for a Primary Care office (in the US) and we do Immigration Exams for people wishing to apply for citizenship. They are ALL REQUIRED to obtain Mumps, Measles, Rubella, Tetanus, Varacella, and Flu Vaccines to pass their examination and obtain citizenship. Why is it required by law for these people to obtain vaccines, but parents that are US citizens (or I guess illegal) able to make the decision for their children to not get vaccines? Also I remember when I was in school it was required to obtain vaccines before entering a certain grade. Is this not the case for schools anymore?

You can get a 'religious' (applies to a belief not to vaccinate regardless of what God you pray to in most cases) waiver to not vaccinate or a doctor's note for delayed vaccinations. Beyond that, it is up to the school district as to how many unvaccinated children they will accept enrollment for.

As for immigrants, they generally have to have them because they are bringing strands from other countries. Once you are a citizen, you gain the rights of this country, until then, you have the play the game and that includes getting the vaccines that we have pretty much gotten rid of thanks to vaccines. The government doesn't want outbreaks just because someone brought it from another country. It's just like if you travel to certain countries you either won't be allowed in that country, or won't be allowed back in ours unless you've had the vaccines, and that is even for citizens.

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"I would laugh if it weren't so damn... is there a word for a mix of pathetic and crazy? Craythetic?" - sittingonlaurels

I'm going to use common sense here instead of googling this. I would assume that the reason they are required to vaccinate before citizenship because where they come from could be under vaccinated or not vaccinated at all. They want to make sure that they aren't going to bring something nasty to our country.
Personally I think anyone coming into this country should be vaccinated before entry.

On the other topic, my kids school requires full vaccination. Very few exemptions are given and they are all medical

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